Charles Officer’s film about Canadian icon Harry Jerome drawing critical acclaim

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Charles Officer’s film about Canadian icon Harry Jerome drawing critical acclaim

8 July 2011 No Comments

Filmmaker Charles Officer

By Saada Branker

Just three days after Charles Officer wrapped shooting his feature film in September 2007, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) came calling with his next job. He was to write and direct a documentary profiling Canada’s three-time Olympic athlete Harry Jerome.

Well aware that a documentary was new territory in his directorial journey, Officer accepted the position. Immediately, he began writing. “When I began conceptualizing the film, I actually went out on an investigative period,” explains Officer.

Wanting to develop his own perspective about the athlete who was Canada’s first to hold a world track record, he interviewed a series of people about Jerome. Officer scored a coup while meeting with Jerome’s ex-wife, Dr. Wendy Jerome.

“She revealed these seven really incredible photo albums that are about 50 pages deep with everything — every article, every photograph of Harry from when they met to when he died and afterwards. Newspapers, his track shoes, his medals, that was my inspiration for the gallery,” says Officer.

The might in Mighty Jerome

That mini museum helped pave the way for Officer’s interweaving of anecdotal narratives, archival footage and revealing re-enactments, which flow together in the black and white feature documentary, Mighty Jerome. Shot in Vancouver and Toronto, the film portrays defining moments in Jerome’s life and career.

Born in 1940 in Prince Albert, Sask. then raised in North Vancouver, B.C., Jerome grew up a biracial boy with a dream to run. As a student, he earned his master’s degree in physical education but passed on teaching. He instead focused on training for qualifying competitions leading to the Olympics and breaking sprinting records along the way.

Along with the achievements came the career-ending threat of harrowing injuries and intense media scrutiny.
Dr. Jerome, featured prominently in Mighty Jerome, says she was pleased with the doc. Officer and his team did “a really good job depicting what it was like for Harry … I think the film, while it touched on his achievements, also developed who Harry was,” she says.

Dr. Jerome confirms that people often mistook her ex-husband’s solemnity for shyness. “In some cases he was more withdrawn, sort of feeling his way before he relaxed. I don’t think Harry relaxed in the company of many people.” It seemed judgement was always near. Jerome’s injury and subsequent return to Canada from the 1960 Olympics are bruising examples.

The documentary reveals that some Canadian journalists considered Jerome a quitter. “Harry was pretty fragile in terms of things like that,” Dr. Jerome explains. “But I think he didn’t want to do anything that could be misconstrued and could interfere with his opportunities. And you can’t fault him for that. I thought he could have taken a stand, but I also understood why he didn’t.”

A daughter’s memories

Much of the intricacies of race and media make it into Officer’s film, as do the complicated truths that follow Jerome after his divorce in 1971 and sudden death in 1982. Namely, a longstanding rift between Jerome’s sister, Valerie, and Dr. Jerome, which left Officer with no choice but to respect Valerie’s wish to be excluded from the film. But perhaps the relationship most affected by the abrupt death was the one between Jerome and his only child.

Debbie Jerome was only 18 when her father died. She still carries vivid memories of him picking her up at the airport when she visited Vancouver. The hit song Joy to the World by Three Dog Night comes to mind: “That song was on the radio and we would always go to Dairy Queen and get a butterscotch sundae,” she recalls.

Now a mother and grandmother, she expands on Mighty Jerome’s role in her healing. “It helped close some doors and brought some closure, which is what I had hoped to get from the film,” says Debbie. “They told the most beautiful story and the vision is perfect. I think they’ve done my father nothing but justice.”